Wednesday 1st November 2017 – Art Club: A Celebration of our Pool

Being lucky enough to have a swimming pool at BWJS, pupils of Art Club thought it fitting to create a piece of art work that examines its unique visual qualities and celebrates our wonderful resource.

We looked at the work of David Hockney, a living British artist who has devoted much of his life to exploring this theme. Pupils made drawings and water-colour sketches of the water surface. They observed how light reflects off the moving surface, the range of colours visible and the fleeting shapes and patterns that appear and constantly change. Representing these elements provided significant challenge. They developed their ideas in acrylic, a plastic water-proof paint. A range of textures and mixed-colours are visible in the watery surfaces created. We looked at how the human figure distorts under the water and tried to represent BWJS pupils participating in weekly swimming lessons.

Finally, we looked at David Hockney’s photo collages created during the 1980s. Here he uses Polaroid camera to capture multiple viewpoints of a subject and arranges them in such a way that reveals more about the subject than would otherwise result from a single shot. Here comparisons may be drawn with the ideas of Cubist artists working earlier in the century. These ideas led us to the arrangement of our final composition, a large-scale collaborative piece showing different views of our swimming pool filled with children having fun and developing their skills.

This artwork is now mounted pool-side for all to enjoy. Well done Art Club students, I am extremely proud of your efforts. Please share with your parents and friends.